CAMRA stereotypes, 1977

Michael Hardman: “It is seen by many people as a trendy organisation. The archetypal CAMRA member is a 20-year-old, male, with long hair, wire-rimmed glasses, drinking half pints of strong beer… I would prefer the archetypal member to be a steel worker in Scunthorpe, downing a gallon of the stuff after the shift has finished.”

One of the founding members of the Campaign for Real Ale, interviewed in What’s Brewing, March 1977.

40-something, beard, paunch, heavy metal or Hobgoblin t-shirt. Mind you, last beer festival I went to I was genuinely surprised at how few blokes fitting that profile I saw. Perhaps the clue’s in the demographics – they’ve all put on another 10 years, lost a few pounds and put the t-shirts away.

That said, this whole discussion has been moot since the big membership push – the archetypal CAMRA member these days is the guy who signs up for the Spoons tokens and forgets to cancel. Hardman was describing the (first-generation) Real Ale Tw*t, and his place in the ecosystem of caricatured subcultures has surely been taken by the Craft Beer P*nce.

Post navigation

Meta

We’re Boak and Bailey

We're geeks in general, but especially about beer and pubs. We write under the names Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey. We live in Cornwall in the UK. We've been blogging about beer since 2007. Email: contact@boakandbailey.com

Related Posts

Young People and Bottled Beer, 1958

Featured Posts

A grisly compendium of the various ways a brewery can kill you.
The sitcom writers tell us about their first show in which Peter Davison played a microbrewer.
If you've been visiting pubs for more than 20 years then we need your help with our current project.
We're tasting a series of beers recommended by others in 2016.
The first modern beer festival described in the words of the those who were there. #BeeryLongreads